Love Hina Advance

Ever wonder what it would be like to be Keitaro and be surrounded by a harem full of cute girls dying for your affection? Well, now you don’t have to wonder anymore. Take on the role of Keitaro and learn the hard way that a harem anime isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

A cute and fast paced dating sim. Love Hina Advance brings to life the story of Love Hina with dialog and images taken right out of the TV series. The goal is basically to gain love points with the girl(s) your interested in, while trying to avoid the jealousy and wrath of the other girls. One of the nice things about the game is you can choose whom you wish to have a relationship with, leading to multiple different endings that are different from the original. While you never break free of the events in the anime, it is still nice to be able to rewrite the ending (even more so if you weren’t happy with the way it ended).

Unlike most dating sims, you have time limits on your reactions with a range from nearly instant in a few cases to a few seconds to think over your choice. While Keitaro is nearly invincible and can take beating after beating in the anime and manga he is not in the game, and can be killed if he is abused too much. This can be quite a challenge when much of the time any choice you make will lead to you being beaten and abused by one of the residents of the Hinata Inn. This leads to a need for the player to become more aware of what they say and do, but also to think more carefully about the females they are trying to impress as health is limited and trying to do too much at once may lead to Keitaro’s untimely demise.

Despite fairly solid game play for a dating sim there are a few holes in the story line that may confuse people who are not familiar with the Love Hina universe. If your love points with a certain character are too low, or you choose a certain path that differs from the events in the original story it can lead to jumping over details in the story and make for a confusing turn of events. An example of this would be skipping an event in the story or choosing an alternative and then later having it brought up and not have actually happened within the game.

Fans of the series will find this a must have for their collection. Though it does have a few small holes in the story, Love Hina Advance is still a decent dating sim. Even if you are not a die hard fan of Love Hina you should still be able to enjoy this game and follow the story line with a fair amount of ease.